Admittedly this will read as snarky but its not meant to be. Having been frustrated with the expense and tedium of vinyl myself, my advice is to cut your losses on vinyl and go back to streaming, no one will convince me vinyl’s a better all around experience. It's nostalgic - for a while- then the realities of its drawback and limitations set in.
Dealing with Static on LP palyback
Anyone have any suggestions on how to deal with static build up on LPs as I play them? Just playing one side is something enough to cause an arc when I pick up the album. Most of the time I hear tiny, consistent crackles that sound just like static.
All the things I tried that claim to reduce static does not. I must have four record mats and a camel hair tone arm brush, all of which claim to reduce static but have no effect that I can see.
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No vinyl record improves with being played! There is always a little extra wear, a bit more surface noise, and (in my view) more static to be managed. Meanwhile the stylus is also wearing out, and somewhere between say 300 and 1000 hours will need replacing. Compared with CDs or SACDs, you have to jump up about 4 times as often which might save on gym fees. It does engender more involvement! Not all music is available on streaming services, and there is no guarantee of continuity. I have quite recently been drawn back into the vinyl world, initially drawn by curiosity about claims of sound quality over digital. Right now, I am rather enjoying the vinyl experience but the trip is awfully expensive! |
@speedthrills I do stream, and I have also played CD's directly as well as ripped them into .wav files. One thing I learned is CD's are static, what you get is not going to get much better, while streaming digital is still young and has the promise of native higher bit resolutions and faster sample rates. My LP playback had much better sound quality than digital until I upgraded the DAC, then digital was better. Now, six years later, I upgraded the LP system, and everyone in the house prefers LP to digital streaming, at least as far as sound quality is concerned. Maybe in another 5 years, I will upgrade the DAC again and the pendulum may switch back. That being said, streaming is by far the most convenient, and that obviously won't change in the future. |
@speedthrills ”no one will convince me…” Vinyl is definitely a good source for people who know what they are doing, and have a fair idea of what to expect. A sorry and worst case scenario would be owning a 6K turntable, and never learning how to set it up correctly. |
- 96 posts total